Installing RapidSMS on Mac OS X for development

Mac OS X 10.5 and later ship with Python and setuptools. If you are using an earlier version of OS X, you may need to install setuptools following instructions found here: http://pypi.python.org/pypi/setuptools

You will also need the Mac OS X Developer Tools which is installed by the Xcode package on your OS X installation disc.

Steps 1-3 are optional — virtualenv makes it easier to keep a tidy python environment for development. If you are not familiar with virtualenv, learn more here: http://pypi.python.org/pypi/virtualenv

1 Install virtualenv and pip (optional)

$ sudo easy_install virtualenv
$ sudo easy_install pip

2 Create a virtual environment (optional)

$ virtualenv --no-site-packages my_rapidsms_env

3 Activate the virtual environment (optional)

$ source my_rapidsms_env/bin/activate

4 Install RapidSMS

$ pip install rapidsms

5 Create a new project

$ rapidsms-admin.py startproject myproject
$ cd myproject

Optionally configure, then spawn the database

$ python manage.py syncdb

6 Start the development server

$ python manage.py runserver

7 Start the message router (in another window OR use GNU Screen — don’t forget to activate the virtualenv in your second window)

$ python manage.py runrouter

To stop the RapidSMS message router, press ctrl-C